29 Jan, 2025 @ 17:00
1 min read

Frustrated expat blasts ‘illegal vanlifers’ who ‘throw human waste’ onto beach

A FRUSTRATED expat has spoken out after ‘illegal’ campers were spotted throwing rubbish and human waste onto a Torrox beach. 

Doug Fairchild, 78 from Australia claims around 70 campervans are illegally parked in a public car park near the lighthouse. 

He alleges Torrox council are doing ‘nothing’ to stop the growing ‘health risk’, exacerbated by the presence of feral cats.

Photo: The Olive Press

“Many of the caravans do not have toilets and use the nearby flora, as do the vans when they empty their wastage,” he told the Olive Press. 

“We have continually complained to the town hall and Guardia Civil but it falls on deaf ears despite a sign clearly stating campervans are not allowed.”

Fairchild lives directly opposite the site in Urbanizacion Punta del Faro. 

He claims Policia Local agents cleared the area at the beginning of January, removing around 30 vans.

However, within days the numbers ‘swelled’ to over 40, expanding out of the car park and onto Fairchild’s street.

“If I planned to sell my apartment and future buyers saw the amount of campers, I’m sure the offer would be reduced and I would struggle to sell,” he claimed. 

Just minutes away, there are two campervan parks, MiluCar and Paradise Beach Camper Area. 

It comes a week after hundreds of campers were evicted from the Maro-Cerro Gordo cliffs nature reserve in Nerja

The joint operation involved 14 patrol groups, including agents of the Guardia Civil, Nerja Policia Local and the Junta environmental officers. 

During the eviction on Monday, January 20, two people were arrested for disobedience and resisting arrest. 

Some five vehicles were removed with a tow truck from the Las Alberquillas, Rio de la Miel and Cala del Pino beaches. 

Torrox Council and Policia Local have not responded to requests for comment. 

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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